OSSocial

A social networking web application built with ASP.NET Core 9.0 MVC. Users can create posts, follow each other, react and comment, join groups, and receive notifications. Post content is moderated automatically using the Google Gemini AI API.

Features

• Authentication — Registration, login, and role-based access control via ASP.NET Identity
• Posts — Create, edit, delete, and explore posts; image uploads via Cloudinary
• Comments — Add and edit comments on posts
• Reactions — React to posts
• Follow system — Follow/unfollow users; support for private accounts
• Groups — Create and join groups; group profile pages
• Notifications — In-app notification feed
• User profiles — Display name, bio, profile picture, follower/following counts
• Content moderation — AI-powered content analysis using Google Gemini to screen posts and comments
• Seeded data — Roles, demo users, groups, and posts are automatically inserted on first run

Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Framework	ASP.NET Core 9.0 MVC
ORM	Entity Framework Core 9.0
Database	MySQL 8.4
Identity	ASP.NET Core Identity
AI	Google Generative AI (Gemini)
Frontend	Bootstrap, jQuery
Containerisation	Docker / Docker Compose

Prerequisites

• Docker and Docker Compose, or .NET 9 SDK
• A Google AI Studio API key
• (Optional) A Cloudinary account for image uploads

How to Run

Option 1 — Docker Compose (recommended)

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone <repo-url>
   cd DotNet

2. Create a .env file in the project root (next to docker-compose.yml) with your secrets:

   GOOGLE_API_KEY=your_google_ai_api_key
   
   # Optional — defaults shown below
   MYSQL_DATABASE=OS_DB
   MYSQL_USER=appuser
   MYSQL_PASSWORD=apppass
   MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=rootpass
   APP_PORT=8080

3. Add the following tools/ packages to your app container (docker exec commands):

    dotnet tool install --global dotnet-ef
   
    dotnet add package Pomelo.EntityFrameworkCore.MySql --version 9.0.0

4. Start the application:

   docker compose up -d

5. Open your browser at http://localhost:8080.

Migrations are applied and the database is seeded automatically on startup.

---

Option 2 — Local (dotnet run)

1. Make sure you have the .NET 9 SDK and a running MySQL 8.4 instance.

2. Update OSSocial/appsettings.json with your real values:

   {
     "GoogleAi": {
       "ApiKey": "your_google_ai_api_key"
     },
     "ConnectionStrings": {
       "DefaultConnection": "Server=localhost;Port=3306;Database=OS_DB;User=appuser;Password=apppass;"
     }
   }

3. Restore dependencies and run:

   cd OSSocial
   dotnet run

4. Open your browser at the URL printed in the terminal

Default Seeded Accounts

After the first run, demo accounts are available. Check OSSocial/Models/SeedData.cs for the exact usernames and passwords.

Role	Purpose
Admin	Full administrative access
User	Standard account

Project Structure

OSSocial/
├── Controllers/      # MVC controllers (Posts, Comments, Groups, Profiles, …)
├── Models/           # Entity models and ApplicationUser
├── Views/            # Razor views
├── Data/             # EF Core DbContext
├── Migrations/       # EF Core migrations
├── Services/         # ContentAnalysisService (Google Gemini integration)
├── Areas/Identity/   # ASP.NET Identity Razor pages (login, register, …)
└── wwwroot/          # Static assets (CSS, JS, images)